Wilder Woods at Varsity Theater (04/29/2023)

Wilder Woods aka Bear Rinehart aka William Stanley Rinehart II played to a sold out crowd at the Varsity Theater in support of his sophomore album FEVER/SKY, a personal record that Rolling Stones describes as “vibrant, upbeat with freewheeling positivity”. Rinehart, front man for NEEDTOBREATHE, describes his latest solo effort as a cross-country road trip. “… a journey where I’m happy to be in a car, driving forward.”

Abraham Alexander opened the evening with a solo set, featuring songs from his recently released debut album SEA/SONS. 

Alexander is having quite a debut, reaching #42 on Billboard’s Top Current Albums, scoring guest appearances from Mavis Staples and Gary Clark Jr. He just played on CBS Saturday Mornings concert series and will be playing in front of much bigger crowds this summer at the Newport Folk Festival and Bonaroo. 

Although his parents are from Nigeria, Alexander was born in Greece. At age 11 his parents made the decision to immigrate to the United States, settling in Fort Worth. Alexander joked that his parents wanted to find the best place to raise their black sons. So they moved to Texas.

SEA/SONS is a testament to a journey that involves moving to a foreign country, the sudden death of her mother at the hands of a drunk driver, the abuse from his father and working through all that pain and struggle, as found in his song, “Blood Under the Bridge”.

Scars do not blind me

Silver Lining

I wear them proudly on my sleeve

Wilder Woods took the stage with a rip-roaring, foot-stomping, hand-clapping set that was one part neo-soul, one part gospel revival with a lot of Southern rock.

Rinehart kicked off the evening with “Light Shine In” and kept the evening going in with an endless amount of energy, only dialing it back with songs like “Patience”, “Heavenly Light” and his personal favorite from his new album, “Make Your Own Mistakes”, a love letter to his sons. .

Varsity marquee (29 Apr 2023)

Rinehart said Minneapolis has a special place in his heart for he played the Varsity fourteen years before and it was after that concert that he met Minneapolis native, Tyler Burkum, who would go on to become his lead guitarist and wingman. He said it took a couple of years of courting to woo Burkum. He said he wished he would have had a better pickup line at the start.

Rinehart also said it will be twenty years in August that he has been married. His wife was in the audience and you could sense that being back at a place where he met Rinehart with his wife present and reaching a major milestone in his personal and professional life that, yes, he was a little sentimental. But it was time to crank it up.

Alexander joined the band on stage during The Beatles’ “Get Back” with Burkum sounding like vintage Steve Cropper on his guitar solos. Rinehart then introduced his backup singer, April Rucker, as the best part of the band and let her take the stage with a rousing rendition of Audioslave’s “Cochise”.

The highlight of the evening was his joyous hit “Maestro”, a song that makes one think Rinehart may have a fine backup career as a gospel preacher. In fact, for the last song, “Heartland”, he waded into the audience of true believers to finish the evening with only his acoustic guitar and raspy voice.